Live the Dream Cube: Dreams Never Die

Posted on Jul 16, 2024

Welcome back to the fourth run of The Live the Dream Cube on Magic Online! The fine folks at Daybreak Games have given me the honor of bringing you another run of the Cube where mana ramp runs rampant, extra turns are extra sweet, and you can tap lands for more atoms than there are in the universe.

The Live the Dream Cube plays by a few different rules than most cubes.

For instance, here on MTGO, you’ll often see Vintage Cube, where you can play cards such as Ancestral Recall, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and course, Black Lotus.

[Ancestral Recall; Oko, Thief of Crowns; Black Lotus]

And maybe in some other cubes, you might see cards such as Goblin Guide, Counterspell, or Armageddon.

[Goblin Guide; Counterspell; Armageddon]

This isn’t that kind of Cube. In the Live the Dream Cube, there are dreams to live with cards like these:

[Zacama, Primal Calamity; Hidetsugu and Kairi; Calamity, Galloping Inferno; Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider; Unite the Coalition]

As you might have noticed, those cards share a couple of traits:

• They’re not aggressive cards.
• They cost lots of mana and lots of colors.
• They have a high potential for crazy plays with a bit of set up.

The Live the Dream Cube *looks* like a Good Stuff Cube, but it plays more like a Synergy Cube that excels in battleship games not unlike Commander. Cards in the Cube have the greatest mana value of basically any Cube out there. To help support that, very few creatures exist solely to attack and reduce your opponent’s life total to zero, especially in the early turns. While you don’t have infinite time to play your five-mana enchantments that don’t impact the board, you certainly have more time than in other Cubes.

This Cube has a higher concentration than normal of dual lands and colorless two-mana rocks to help accelerate a deck’s mana curve. The two phrases on cards this Cube likes best are “Add one mana of any color” and “You may play that card without paying its mana cost.”

Each two-color pair has a general idea of how it wants its games to go. I wouldn’t call them archetypes exactly, as average decks in this Cube are 3 or more colors. While some cards are somewhat narrow in the sense that they look for cards of the same type, the vast majority are open-ended and chosen to be good on their own but are waiting for you to choose the other cards that will make it truly great.

Since a card image is worth a thousand tournament reports, here’s a good smattering of cards in each of those colors that show off that pair’s vibes:

[Assimilation Aegis; Brago, King Eternal; Cloudblazer]

[Thief of Sanity; Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow; Satoru, the Infiltrator]

[Laughing Jasper Flint; Hurl Through Hell; Olivia, Crimson Bride]

[Halana and Alena, Partners; Roxanne, Starfall Savant; Dragonlord Atarka]

[Faeburrow Elder; Selvala, Eager Trailblazer; Mirari’s Wake]

[Despark; Invasion of Tolvada; Kaya, Intangible Slayer]

[Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot; Ral, Storm Conduit; Blast of Genius]

[Glissa Sunslayer; Carth the Lion; Casualties of War]

[General Ferrous Rokiric; Djeru and Hazoret; Quintorius, Loremaster]

[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy; Make Your Own Luck; Bonny Pall, Clearcutter]

This cube also has the most five-color cards you’ll probably see anywhere – it’s what I try to force most of the time:

[Two-Headed Hellkite; The Kami War; Invasion of Alara]

Remember those five cards I mentioned at the beginning? Imagine if you also had one of these in the same deck? Now wouldn’t that be fun?

[Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign; Aminatou’s Augury; Skitterbeam Battalion; Nissa, Ascended Animist; Pyromancer’s Goggles]

To win at the Live the Dream Cube, I’d recommend drafting lots of mana ramp and prioritizing fixing. While drafting two-drops are important, drafting a plan is even more so. But the real way to win is just to have fun and share that fun with others. It’s a game after all! It’s been an honor working on this Cube with all of you these past four years. I’ve had so much fun learning not just how to make games through this project, but how to make friends, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Somebody once told me, “If you’re doing it alone, you’re doing it wrong.” So thank you all for joining me on this journey.

As usual, be excellent to each other, it’s all about the gathering, and never stop living your dream.

David McDarby

Live the Dream Full Cardlist